Hi, since the auto-update information is not always correct or feasible, especially for conference papers, it would be nice to allow paste/upload BibTeX for a specific paper, instead of manually typing in the information.
Currently, I can paste BibTeX via the Add button, but this will create a separate entry. Moreover, they usually won’t be detected as duplicates, and I can’t mark them as duplicates as well. So I have to download the PDF and re-upload the PDF to the new entry, and delete the old entry. It would also be nice if I can mark two papers as duplicates.
Thanks for pointing out the issue with the new app not detecting duplicates when pasting a BibTeX entry for a reference already in your library @Emrick. I have let the team know.
In the new app, have you found the Duplicates filter in the filter menu? Do the duplicate references show up there and in the Duplicates filter in the old app? Currently the “Merge selected references” function isn’t working properly in the new app. You will need to merge the references in the old app, which you can do since you can use the old app side-by-side with the new.
I have found the duplicates filter. The merge seems to work when it does detect duplicates, though I can’t verify at the moment.
What would be the criteria for duplicates? I can’t image that duplicate detection would work 100%, since the metadata can be incorrect. This is especially true since many papers would separate the appendix as a different PDF file from their main paper, then there will two entries when they are added to paperpile. It will be convenient to have the option to force merge two or more entries.
How do I merge files in the old app? There seems no duplicate filter in the old app, although I do remember that I did in the past.
Add to another point of updating metadata with bibtex. Based on the forum posts, I think it’s common people need to edit metadata; it’s common for journal/conference websites to provide BibTeX, which should be utilized to make metadata more accurate. A function to browser/paste bibtex for a specific paper should be handy, similar to the browse for PDF function paperpile has now.
If no duplicates are showing up in the old app, this means you currently have no detectable duplicates in your library @Emrick. You can force duplicates to appear in the duplicates filter by making identifier fields like DOI, ISBN and URL the same in each of the duplicate references. Once you do that, you can select the references you’d like to merge by clicking the Merge Selected button in the top toolbar.
Thank you for reporting this issue @Emrick. I have been able to reproduce it - it happens when you merge references in the old app after setting a custom key pattern in the new app. I have let the team know.
There is no direct way to update reference metadata via BibTeX @Sean-Lee but I’ve recorded your +1 for this request for consideration by the team later. You can paste BibTeX into the the old and new apps via Add Papers > Add Manually in the old app (Add > Paste in the new app). But this does create a duplicate reference in your library if you’ve already added the paper. The team will fix this in the new app.
